How old are your social media profile pictures?

A recent survey conducted by an online local services marketplace has discovered that the average social media profile picture is 2 years old, so how old are yours? For many people social media is the first thing they look at when they get up in the morning and the last thing they look at before going to bed, and helps people connect with their friends and family whenever they want. But this survey shows that things may not always be what it seems when it comes to profile pictures.

In a bid to find out how people present themselves online and how they perceive other people, Bidvine.com asked over 2,000 UK residents who were users of social media and dating sites how up to date their profile pictures were.

The survey found that users of dating apps such as Grindr and Tinder were more likely to change their profile pictures more often, while social media users would change their profile pictures on average every 5 to 6 months.

The data also showed that dating websites seemed to be the least up to date when it came to users profile pictures, with Plenty of Fish users keeping the same profile picture for an average of 3.2 years and Match.com users taking on average 4 years to change their picture.

Below are the top ten social media accounts, dating websites and apps and on average how long it takes users to update their profile pictures:

Grindr (2 weeks)

Tinder (3 weeks)

WhatsApp (2.5 months)

Facebook (5 months)

Instagram (6 months)

SnapChat (8 months)

Twitter (1.8 years)

LinkedIn (2.1 years)

Plenty of Fish (3.2 years)

com (4 years)

Rather surprisingly, 11% of respondents stated that their profile pictures were taken more than 10 years ago. Participants who admitted to using out of date pictures were asked, “If you don’t change a profile photo regularly, why do you think this is?” 62% of respondents said that they struggle to find pictures they are happy with, while 49% confessed that they wanted to appear younger to people looking at their profiles.

Sohrab Jahanbani, CEO of Bidvine.com commented on the findings saying,

“Looking at the regularity with which people change their profile photos, it appears that older, more conventional dating websites and the networks people use on a regular professional basis, such as LinkedIn and Twitter lag behind, while younger single people are more likely to want to use newer photos.

“It appears that people don’t change their photos because they struggle to find photos of themselves they like. So, drawing on the largest network of local professionals you can hire in the UK from Bidvine.com, we’re offering free photos all week from the 10th October in London to give site and app profiles a fresher look. As we all know, whether it’s for a wedding or a company headshot, professional photos make a difference. We’ll be announcing other cities and dates shortly.”